Assessment of University External Internships. Towards a Mixed Model for Measuring the Acquisition of Skills and the Satisfaction of Parties Involved

The continuous improvement of management and assessment processes for curricular external internships has led a group of university teachers specialised in this area to develop a mixed model of measurement that combines the verification of skill acquisition by those students choosing external internships with the satisfaction of the parties involved in that process. They included academics, educational tutors of companies and organisations and administration and services personnel in the latter category. The experience, developed within University of Alicante, has been carried out in the degrees of Business Administration and Management, Business Studies, Economics, Advertising and Public Relations, Sociology and Social Work, all part of the Faculty of Economics and Business. By designing and managing closed standardised interviews and other research tools, validated outside the centre, a system of continuous improvement and quality assurance has been created, clearly contributing to the gradual increase in the number of students with internships in this Faculty, as well as to the improvement in satisfaction, efficiency and efficacy indicators at a global level. As this experience of educational innovation has shown, the acquisition of curricular knowledge, skills, abilities and competences by the students is directly correlated with the satisfaction of those parties involved in a process that takes the student beyond the physical borders of a university campus. Ensuring the latter is a task made easier by the implementation of a mixed assessment method, combining continuous and final assessment, and characterised by its rigorousness and simple management. This report presents that model, subject in turn to a persistent and continuous control, a model all parties involved in the external internships are taking part of. Its short-term results imply an increase, estimated at 15% for the last course, in the number of students choosing curricular internships and, for the medium and long-term, a major interweaving between the academic world and its social and productive environment, both in the business and institutional areas. The potentiality of this assessment model does not lie only in the quality of its measurement tools, but also in the effects from its use in the various groups and in the actions that are carried out as a result of its implementation and which, without any doubt and as it is shown below, are the real guarantee of a continuous improvement.

PSPLINE: Stata module providing a penalized spline scatterplot smoother based on linear mixed model technology

Pspline uses xtmixed to fit a penalized spline regression and plots the smoothed function. Additional covariates can be specified to adjust the smooth and plot partial residuals.

Mixed model formulations for multi-environment trials

When studying genotype X environment interaction in multi-environment trials, plant breeders and geneticists often consider one of the effects, environments or genotypes, to be fixed and the other to be random. However, there are two main formulations for variance component estimation for the mixed model situation, referred to as the unconstrained-parameters (UP) and constrained-parameters (CP) formulations. These formulations give different estimates of genetic correlation and heritability as well as different tests of significance for the random effects factor. The definition of main effects and interactions and the consequences of such definitions should be clearly understood, and the selected formulation should be consistent for both fixed and random effects. A discussion of the practical outcomes of using the two formulations in the analysis of balanced data from multi-environment trials is presented. It is recommended that the CP formulation be used because of the meaning of its parameters and the corresponding variance components. When managed (fixed) environments are considered, users will have more confidence in prediction for them but will not be overconfident in prediction in the target (random) environments. Genetic gain (predicted response to selection in the target environments from the managed environments) is independent of formulation.

Recent Results on Stability Analysis of an Optimal Assembly Line Balance

Two assembly line balancing problems are addressed. The first problem (called SALBP-1) is to minimize number of linearly ordered stations for processing n partially ordered operations V = {1, 2, ..., n} within the fixed cycle time c. The second problem (called SALBP-2) is to minimize cycle time for processing partially ordered operations V on the fixed set of m linearly ordered stations. The processing time ti of each operation i ∈V is known before solving problems SALBP-1 and SALBP-2. However, during the life cycle of the assembly line the values ti are definitely fixed only for the subset of automated operations V\V . Another subset V ⊆ V includes manual operations, for which it is impossible to fix exact processing times during the whole life cycle of the assembly line. If j ∈V , then operation times tj can differ for different cycles of the production process. For the optimal line balance b of the assembly line with operation times t1, t2, ..., tn, we investigate stability of its optimality with respect to possible variations of the processing times tj of the manual operations j ∈ V .

Identifying the Impact of Incomplete Datasets on Process Cycle Time Prediction in an Aerospace Assembly Line

Supply Chain Simulation (SCS) is applied to acquire information to support outsourcing decisions but obtaining enough detail in key parameters can often be a barrier to making well informed decisions.
One aspect of SCS that has been relatively unexplored is the impact of inaccurate data around delays within the SC. The impact of the magnitude and variability of process cycle time on typical performance indicators in a SC context is studied.
System cycle time, WIP levels and throughput are more sensitive to the magnitude of deterministic deviations in process cycle time than variable deviations. Manufacturing costs are not very sensitive to these deviations.
Future opportunities include investigating the impact of process failure or product defects, including logistics and transportation between SC members and using alternative costing methodologies.

混流装配线计划调度系统设计与开发

随着全球市场竞争更加激烈，上层计划管理系统（MRPII/ERP）受市场影响越来越大，计划的适应性问题愈来愈突出，明显感到计划跟不上变化。因此，解决生产计划的适应性以及增加底层生产过程的信息流动，提高计划的实时性和灵活性，已经成为一个重要的研究课题。制造执行系统（MES），作为上层计划和底层控制的桥梁，能够通过传递信息，可使得从订单下达到产品完成的整个生产活动进行优化。依赖准确的数据对工厂活动进行指导、启动、响应和报告。其中，车间级计划与调度管理系统是整个MES系统的核心技术，是现代生产管理的关键问题之一。国内外许多学者对计划调度方法作了大量的研究。 在研究生期间参与了课题组国家863高技术计划项目“面向汽车行业总装过程的可视化监控与执行管理系统”的研究与开发工作，我的主要工作是：以西安法士特齿轮有限公司的装配制造执行系统项目为应用背景，在搭建课题主要内容的SIA-MES运行平台中承担生产事件模型的设计以及软件开发工作，并在SIA-MES运行平台基础上，对混流装配线的调度问题进行了研究，给出了一种缩短生产周期的投产排序算法，设计了混流装配线计划调度系统，独立完成了软件部分的设计与开发工作。并且通过了辽宁省电子信息产品监督检验院的产品测试、得到了他们的认证。 本文的内容主要有以下几方面： 首先，阐述了MES以及制造业混流生产的产生原因及发展现状； 其次，对SIA-MES运行平台做了简单的介绍；并重点阐述了平台基于事件触发的通信机制以及事件对于计划调度系统的支撑。在此基础上，分析制定了计划调度系统的设计目标，而后按此目标完成了系统的功能设计，并对混流装配线调度问题进行了研究，针对计划实施的不同阶段给出不同的优化方法。 最后，介绍了计划调度系统的软件实现。包括基于SOA的软件实现技术，给出了软件系统的总体结构，并对各模块的具体实现进行了简单的介绍，包括类设计以及数据库设计。

Resolução do problema de sequenciamento de múltiplas linhas de montagem de modelos mistos em ambiente de produção enxuta

This work deals with the sequencing of Multi-Mixed-Model Assembly Lines in a lean manufacturing environment, where an operational structure where several kanbans support several mixed-model assembly lines, so that all assembly lines can receive parts or sub-assemblies from all suppliers. To optimize this system, the sequencing seeks to minimize the distance between the real consumption and the constant ideal consumption of parts or subassemblies, thereby reducing the scaling of kanbans and intermediate stocks. To solve the sequencing problems, the method Clustering Search was applied along with the metaheuristics Variable Neighborhood Search, Simulation Annealing and Iterative Local Search. Instances from the literature and generated instances were tested, thus allowing comparing the methods to each other and with other methods presented in the literature. The performance of the Clustering Search with Iterated Local Search stands out by the quality and robustness of their solutions, and mainly for its efficiency, whereas it converges to better results at a lower computational cost

Job rotation in assembly lines employing disabled workers

In this paper we consider the programming of job rotation in the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem. The motivation for this study comes from the designing of assembly lines in sheltered work centers for the disabled, where workers have different task execution times. In this context, the well-known training aspects associated with job rotation are particularly desired. We propose a metric along with a mixed integer linear model and a heuristic decomposition method to solve this new job rotation problem. Computational results show the efficacy of the proposed heuristics. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

混流汽车总装配线上的零部件优化配送方案研究

配送车每次配送的利用率大小是提高配送效率的主要因素,因此设计一种启发式算法使配送车一次装载的标准塑料周转箱尽可能多,提高配送车空间利用率。最后的仿真实验验证了上述配送方法的实用性,提出的零部件配送管理方法,只需使用较少的配送工人,同时降低了线旁库存,能为企业节省人力,降低生产成本。

混流汽车装配线物料配送优化策略研究

随着世界经济的迅速发展和科学技术的不断进步，物流对经济贸易活动的影响与日俱增，受到越来越多人们的关注。在中国，越来越多的人们已经意识到物流对企业发展的重要性，因为物流业的发展必然降低物流成本在GDP中的比重；加快企业流动资金周转速度；还必然带动固定资产投资，降低企业的物流成本，提高市场竞争力。汽车生产物流系统是制造业界公认的最复杂，组织难度最大，物流管理任务最繁重的系统，对企业内部来说，生产的全过程更多的转化为生产物料的配送与装配，而不是过去的原材料的加工生产。据统计在装配线的实际运行过程中，由于物料配送不及时或错误导致输送链停止的情况占有很大的比例，优化装配线上的物料配送管理系统就显得非常重要。 本文结合当地某汽车总装厂的生产物流现状，研究设计一种高效的物流配送管理系统。汽车混流装配线上多种型号的汽车共线生产，一个好的物料配送系统应保证将正确数量的合格零部件在准确的时间配送到需要的工位旁边。在分析混流装配线上物料流的基础上，我们提出了针对系统的几个优化目标，首先以使各工位的零部件使用速率均衡化为目标，采用模拟退火算法，来得到车身上线的最优投产排序序列，在此基础上，我们设计物流配送系统的体系结构，包括库房条形码管理系统和线上物料配送管理系统，然后根据配送管理系统中存在的一系列问题，文中研究提出了一种插入启发式优化算法，来实现零部件从库房到生产线旁的动态配送，最后我们采用数字化工厂仿真软件Em-plant建立一套物流配送管理系统的仿真模型，仿真结果验证了该系统的高效性，并对汽车制造业的企业管理者作决策起到一定的参考意义。

Do dynamic work instructions provide an advantage over static instructions in a small scale assembly task?

Recent studies exploring the effects of instructional animations on learning compared to static graphics have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored their effectiveness in portraying procedural-motor information. Opportunities exist within an applied (manufacturing) context for instructional animations to be used to facilitate build performance on an assembly line. The present study compares build time performance across successive builds when using animation, static diagrams or text instructions to convey an assembly sequence for a handheld device. Although an immediate facilitating effect of animation was found, yielding a significantly faster build time for Build 1, this advantage had disappeared by Build 3. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving power and accuracy of genome-wide association studies via a multi-locus mixed linear model methodology

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been widely used in genetic dissection of complex traits. However, common methods are all based on a fixed-SNP-effect mixed linear model (MLM) and single marker analysis, such as efficient mixed model analysis (EMMA). These methods require Bonferroni correction for multiple tests, which often is too conservative when the number of markers is extremely large. To address this concern, we proposed a random-SNP-effect MLM (RMLM) and a multi-locus RMLM (MRMLM) for GWAS. The RMLM simply treats the SNP-effect as random, but it allows a modified Bonferroni correction to be used to calculate the threshold p value for significance tests. The MRMLM is a multi-locus model including markers selected from the RMLM method with a less stringent selection criterion. Due to the multi-locus nature, no multiple test correction is needed. Simulation studies show that the MRMLM is more powerful in QTN detection and more accurate in QTN effect estimation than the RMLM, which in turn is more powerful and accurate than the EMMA. To demonstrate the new methods, we analyzed six flowering time related traits in Arabidopsis thaliana and detected more genes than previous reported using the EMMA. Therefore, the MRMLM provides an alternative for multi-locus GWAS.

A transmission line model developed directly in phase domain

The phases of a transmission line are tightly coupled due to mutual impedances and admittances of the line. One way to accomplish the calculations of currents and voltages in multi-phase lines consists in representing them in modal domain, where its n coupled phases are represented by their n propagation modes. The separation line in their modes of propagation is through the use of a modal transformation matrix whose columns are eigenvectors associated with the parameters of the line. Usually, this matrix is achieved through numerical methods which do not allow the achievement of an analytical model for line developed directly in the phases domain. This work will show an analytical model for phase currents and voltages of the line and results it will be applied to a hypothetical two-phase. It will be shown results obtained with that will be compared to results obtained using a classical model. © 2012 IEEE.